Visualization and modeling or design of teeth are known in the field of dental restorations.
When a patient requires a dental restoration, such as crowns, bridges, abutments, or implants, the dentist will prepare the teeth e.g. a damaged tooth is grinded down to make a preparation where a crown is glued onto. An alternative treatment is to insert implants, such as titanium screws, into the jaw of the patient and mount crowns or bridges on the implants. After preparing the teeth or inserting an implant the dentist can make an impression of the upper jaw, the lower jaw and a bite registration or a single impression in a double-sided tray, also known as triple trays. The impressions are sent to the dental technicians who manufacture the restorations e.g. the bridge. The first step to manufacture the restoration is traditionally to cast the upper and lower dental models from impressions of the upper and the lower jaw, respectively. The models are usually made of gypsum and often aligned in a dental articulator using the bite registration to simulate the real bite and chewing motion. The dental technician builds up the dental restoration inside the articulator to ensure a nice visual appearance and bite functionality.
CAD technology for manufacturing dental restoration is rapidly expanding improving quality, reducing cost and facilitating the possibility to manufacture in attractive materials otherwise not available. The first step in the CAD manufacturing process is to create a 3-dimensional model of the patient's teeth. This is traditionally done by 3D scanning one or both of the dental gypsum models. The 3-dimensional replicas of the teeth are imported into a CAD program, where the entire dental restoration, such as a bridge substructure, is designed. The final restoration 3D design is then manufactured e.g. using a milling machine, 3D printer, rapid prototyping manufacturing or other manufacturing equipment. Accuracy requirements for the dental restorations are very high otherwise the dental restoration will not be visual appealing, fit onto the teeth, could cause pain or cause infections.
WO10031404A relates to tools in a system for the design of customized three-dimensional models of dental restorations for subsequent manufacturing, where the dental restorations are such as implant abutments, copings, crowns, wax-ups, and bridge frameworks. Moreover, the invention relates to a computer-readable medium for implementing such a system on a computer.
Visualizing and modeling teeth for a patient based are also known from the field of orthodontics.
US2006127836A discloses orthodontic systems and methods for determining movement of a tooth model from a first position to a second position by identifying one or more common features on the tooth model; detecting the position of the common features on the tooth model at the first position; detecting the position of the common features on the tooth model at the second position; and determining a difference between the position of each common feature at the first and second positions.
Thus orthodontics relates to movement of teeth, so the desired position of a tooth or teeth is determined, and based on the present position of that tooth or teeth, the movement from the present position to the desired position is determined. Thus within orthodontics the desired or resulting position of a tooth or teeth is/are is known before planning the steps of the movement.
It remains a problem to provide an improved method and system for providing esthetically beautiful and/or physiologically suitable results of modeling teeth, both within the field of restorations, implants, orthodontics etc.